Caricature spotting in Bangkok #4

I did not see a huge amount of street artists in my travels, and almost all of the ones I did see offered charcoal portraits, not caricatures. This young man near Khaosan Road did not have any takers as we passed him by...

Caricature-spotting in Bangkok #3

These were displayed in an art/frame shop in MBK mall in downtown Bangkok:

600 Baht is equivalent to about $18. These seem rather detailed for such a low price, but Thailand is well-known for its bargains. The way it works is, an artist takes your photo and you come back several hours later for the drawing...
Here's one that was hanging on the wall:

Finally, some artists were busily painting, scumbling and glazing away here...

Caricature-spotting in Bangkok #2

Another day in Bkk--I spotted this magazine cover. Looks to have been done digitally.

Caricature-spotting in Bangkok...

On my recent trip-of-a-lifetime, I tried to photograph any instances of caricature that presented themselves. One night, my other half, my son and I were sitting in a street cafe on Khaosan Road when I noticed the
t-shirt of a fellow patron:

 The subject was also drawn in on the back of the shirt, which is how I first noticed it:

If anyone knows the subject or artist, by all means comment below! I have my suspicions as to the artist as it looks like the work of a few possibilities...

Confirmation party...

Yesterday afternoon I drew at my first event in more than a month...it was a lovely family party to celebrate Brianna's confirmation.

Brianna herself was a lovely young lady:

I drew everyone there, (with bodies!) (and one uncle who couldn't attend, from an awesome photo on his wife's camera) and photos were taken of all the guests by the hostess:

After a birthday cake was brought out for Brianna, and I found out the confirmation party was also her belated birthday party, I confessed to her mom that yesterday was my 4?th birthday. So I got a round of applause and a piece of (really good) birthday cake! I love my job!!
Thanks for having me and my caricatures on a beautiful afternoon!

Home from Asia and Europe!

My blog has just had the longest hiatus in its almost-five-year existence: my intrepid Other-Half and I went on a month's journey to Thailand, with a four-day jaunt to England tacked on at the end. :-)
My son happens to live in Bangkok, which is about as far as one can get from Philly without being on the way back. It was my first time overseas (unless you count the Caribbean) so I was very excited about:
A. seeing my son after a year and a half
B. seeing sights, eating exotic dishes, and soaking up foreign climes
and
C. finding art/caricature related stuff to share here.
Here's the Other Half, and my son and I, in a water taxi along one of Bangkok's many canals.

So to begin sharing what (little) drawing I actually did, or what I witnessed, on the looooong flights there I doodled Miss S. Germanotta from a magazine. Luckily, I like to do tedious crosshatching sometimes, because there was plenty of time for it:

There's plenty more to come, from street artists to medieval gargoyle faces, once I find the relevant photos among the 18 GBs I took! (video too.) But first I have to get ready for a gig tomorrow---my last one was on February 5th, which may have been my longest break from THAT in a loooong time too!

Emily's blog is on hiatus for the moment...

...how's this for a caricature? :-)

Sweet 16!

On Saturday night, I had a blast drawing at a Sweet 16 party held in a very hip restaurant that featured interesting minimalist decor and conveyor-belt sushi! The birthday girl and all her friends were total sweethearts:

The lighting which made the atmosphere so trendy necessitated the use of my battery-powered clip-on lamp. The restaurant really had no areas roomy enough for my easel, (let alone near an electrical outlet for my standard lighting) so I sat in the lounge and used my clipboard, drawing a few girls at a time...

The girls sat at the super-long table (back right)

One nice thing about being in a crowded restaurant is that a few people who were not party guests asked for business cards! After I'd drawn the girls and the new 16-year-old's brother and parents, the management of the restaurant asked me to stay on and draw them, as one was leaving due to a promotion. So here they are!

I love my job....I think I've mentioned that a few times on this blog :-)

Jazz Festival preview party

Last night, I was part of the ambiance/entertainment at the preview mixer for the upcoming Chester County Jazz Festival, being presented by Sugarbaby Events. For openers, we first got to enjoy (video snippet below!) hearing Henderson HS's Honors Jazz band:

It's becoming a social-media-savvy world we're living in: the big screen carried a live image of Tweet Chat, people were encouraged to Tweet ( #chescojazzfest) about our evening and we could see it right there bigger than life. Of course, I did too:

Now for some faces from the easel:

I drew her bosoms well--but I missed this gal's dimple...I'll have to see if I can connect with her (through social media, of course!) and fix that somehow!

 The last band of the evening was smoooooooooth jazz. :-) (video snippet below, too)

See you this summer at the Chester County Jazz Festival! June 30-July 1 in West Chester, PA!

Acrylic painting FINISHED...

Oftentimes, people ask caricaturists: "Do you do real art?" (The more tactful will say,"Do you do any other kind of art besides caricatures?) I usually say no, that I stay busy with caricature, and besides I love the art form. Once in awhile, I'll venture into other genres, but those projects tend to stay on the back burner...not today, though! 

This is a personal commission that I procrastinated on for a year and a half...

Nekoda's Jungle 24"' x 36" acrylic

It's also the biggest canvas painting I've ever done, with a cast of...many. It's even varnished--that was the only thing I had to buy to get it done. (Some of my acrylic paint tubes are decades old and they are still usable!)

Go backwards in time with me:

The boar and the deer had been added at various visits by my friends Celestia and Marlo.

Above: This is the state it stayed in for a long time....About two weeks ago I decided to finish it---adding butterflies, beetles, a hippo, a panther, a cheetah, a lion, a zebra, a sloth, a gazelle, a hyena, and various flowers. 

More canvases now await me (not this big!)